WORK

Gender Equality, Disability & Social Inclusion (GEDSI)

Gender Equality, Disability and Social Inclusion (GEDSI) means making sure the education system works for every child, especially the ones it usually leaves behind. That includes girls, children with disabilities, transgender children, religious and ethnic minorities, refugees, and the very poor, who are often shut out for several of these reasons at once. For PCE, inclusion is not an extra added on to education reform. It is the real test of whether that reform is working.

It matters because the gaps in Pakistan are huge, and often hidden. A system that only reaches the easy-to-reach keeps things unequal by design. We use the GEDSI lens to ask a simple question of every policy and budget: who is being left out, and why? Then we advocate to bring them in.

What we do

PROGRAMS & INITIATIVES

Policy Dialogues & Consultations

National Roundtable on Education Reforms and Inclusion in Pakistan

Ahead of the 2024 elections, PCE brought parliamentarians and civil society together to unveil a Charter of Education.

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Policy Dialogues & Consultations

Provincial Roundtable: Punjab

An all-parties roundtable in Lahore on planning, financing, and inclusion for children with disabilities.

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Policy Dialogues & Consultations

Harvesting Hope Youth Community Dialogues

A series where young people turned their own stories into advocacy for girls' education.

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PUBLICATIONS

Policy Brief

Budgets and Barriers Rethinking Inclusive Girls Education Financing in Pakistan

Over 13 million girls are out of school in Pakistan and the budgets meant to reach them are rarely designed with them in mind. This brief reframes girls' exclusion as a financing failure, and makes the case for gender-responsive budgeting as the foundation of inclusive education.

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Spotlight Report

2025 Civil Society Spotlight Report on SDG 4: Gender Equality & Social Inclusion in Pakistan's Education System

With less than five years left to meet the Sustainable Development Goals, Pakistan is moving backwards on education. This Civil Society Spotlight Report on SDG 4 puts gender equality and social inclusion at the centre and charts a path toward an education system that leaves no learner behind.

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Policy Brief

From Margins to Mainstream: Centering Girls in the Education Emergency

A policy brief built with adolescent girls themselves setting out how Pakistan's education emergency response must put girls at its centre.

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INISGHTS

Documentaries & Films

QAFAS

A haunting visual poem on the weight of words. A girl's lament to a world that fears her ambition, and her dream of rewriting her destiny through education. Youth-led from direction to cinematography, produced by Urwa Naeem with support from the Malala Fund. This short film had a special screening at the Women International Film Festival 2026, Islamabad.

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Documentaries & Films

Learning Against All Odds: Skills for a Changing Pakistan

Who gets left behind, and what it takes to change that. Across four themes: the divide in education, the struggle for inclusion, skills for the future, and the future we owe our children, education leaders, mental-health advocates, and disability-rights champions ask the hard questions. Featuring Zehra Arshad (SAQE), Gulmina Bilal (NAVTTC), Abdul Rehman Lodhi (EOTO Foundation), Abia Akram (National Forum for Women with Disabilities), Eman Niazi, Naveeda Siddique (SPARC), and Hamna Hafeez (NOWPDP).

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Op-ed

Empowering Girls

Laraib Kiani (Coordinator, Program Development, Communications & Advocacy), in The News International. What it takes to move from access to genuine empowerment for Pakistan's girls.

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